Wednesday, 22 April 2020

Lots of great feedback and testing happening - huge thank you to the playtest team. Still dying to see how one group are managing on Tabletop Simulator! (I did just find some figure assets originally designed for Saga that might be interesting to use....)

In between answering questions (including a couple of 'well, yes. It says so in the rules... actually, that's weird. It doesn't. But that's how everyone plays it, isn't it...' moments) I'm finishing off the last few sections, and should be up for proof-reading Real Soon.

Thursday, 16 April 2020

Ok, so. Last week, for those who pay attention to the Western ecclesiastical calendar, was Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday, and I have been editing videos every day (literally every day) for church (and for a fair chunk of the weeks before, while we were debating whether we were still going to be allowed to stream from an otherwise empty church). This has actually been pretty useful, since it's amounted to a free basic training course in Apple's Final Cut Pro, which is always a handy thing to go on the CV.

I'm also now officially Mill House Studios Ltd (site update IS on the todo list) as I also have a new job from the end of April as a contract developer - for now, I'd prefer not to say who for, if that's ok. Either way, there's a certain amount of organisation involved in getting that up and running, and it does mean I have a handy vehicle for putting the money I make from other projects through.

And then my wife has gone and done her knee in. Again. Because, as usual, she's too stubborn to remember she's already done it in once, and there are other people in the house who can do stuff for her. *sigh* I love her dearly, really I do. :D

I've also been writing a few blogs (per various people's requests) on assorted topics in gaming and setting up Discord etc. And trying to keep the Dux Compendium moving amid all this - the difficulty is that while I was hoping the time off after the previous job would allow me to focus on it, the stuff I have left really requires what programmers call 'flow', the ability to shut off outside distractions, get your head down and do stuff without breaks. And that has been in short supply.

Normal service is being resumed, slowly, honest. I have dumped my todo list into OmniFocus, in the hope that I don't drop anything on the floor.

The hobby streak, sadly, is toast - you'd have kind of thought not, given the circumstances, and if I was really trying I could have probably found something hobby related I've done every day to maintain it, but there are some days that it would have been a real stretch ("I read gaming Twitter!").

Ok. Looking for play testers for the new Raid and Battle scenarios in the Dux Britanniarum Compendium.

If you are reasonably experienced with Dux, and have the time and patience to run through a few scenarios, solo or (in some suitably socially distanced way) with a friend, over the next week or two and send me feedback, please drop me a mail at mike@altrion.org and let me know.

Edit: OK - that’s enough for now!

Huge thanks to the folks who replied: playtest packs will be out today.

I will be looking for a few proofreaders and sanity checkers of the full document when it’s finally done - watch this space.

If you want to join, the invite link is here - you can sign up in a web browser, or if you have the Discord app installed on your tablet, smart phone or computer, the link will take you to the server. There are a number of chat channels, as well as the potential to set up voice chat for online games. or even one to one or small group video chat. I'll be there as TroubleAtT'Mill.

Have fun - treat it as an adjunct to all your current social media, with maybe the advantage of being a little more real time and not subject to the vagaries of what the system thinks you should see on your timeline. Also, voice chat? :D

I dunno if anyone else has noticed, but Amazon's Prime service is creaking a little under the load of a lot of people wanting stuff delivered (remember they run an Amazon Pantry food service which is probably breaking at the seams like all the others). Sadly, this means a couple of bits of kit I need to be able to do a pukka job on the Dux Britanniarum online game aren't going to arrive till possibly Tuesday, so I'm going to regretfully defer that to Saturday 28th March (Chillcon day, were it sadly not cancelled).

And now. on with the Compendium, once I've checked my tame cartographer (James) has done the maps I asked for.

Tuesday, 17 March 2020

Assuming I can get the cameras etc all setup, I propose to run a game of Dux Britanniarum in the studio on Saturday. The intent is to have two players or teams in separate channels on Discord running each force, who will communicate their moves/intentions to me so I can move their forces.

Anyone interested, watch this space.

EDIT: due to delays in Amazon deliveries, this is postponed to Saturday March 28th.

I am in the middle of setting up a Discord server for online gaming and chat. This is not intended to replace Twitter, as that's a happily thriving community that I'm not interested in superseding or competing with (I am not an idiot).

However, it's going to contain at least the following:

Chat area for wargames, board games and RPGs

A business area where small companies can both advertise and chat to customers (I will probably require you to prove to me you're a gaming related business before you get to represent as such, and obviously I will require things to be kept civil and positive :D).

The games area - a channel where you can arrange an online game, and a support channel where you can ask technical questions about doing so

A channel with a dice-roller bot (never know when THAT'll come in handy!)

Voice chat. I'm not setting up any channels as yet, but I have plans: they will if nothing else be useful to allow voice chat while playing wargames via (say) Tabletop Simulator

The server invite link will be up later today or tomorrow, once I have things locked down and bots created to my satisfaction.